Storage system



Jan. 29 1935. M. A. KENDALL 1,989,281

' STORAGE SYSTEM Filed Aug. 11, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet l Jan. 29, 1935. M. A. KENDALL STORAGE SYSTEM Filed Aug. 11, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 9, 5- M. A; KENDALL 1,989,281

STORAGE SYSTEM Filed Aug. 11, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet s M. A. KE DALL Jan.

STORAGE S STEM Filed Aug. 11, 931

4 Sheets-S et 4 Patented Jan. 29, 1935 UNITED .STATES 1,989,281 r s o taGE sYs'rEM 'Myron A. Kendall, Aurora, lll., assignor i Stephens-Adamso'n Mtg. a corporation of Illinois Application August 11, 1931, Serial :li'o. $$,425

' 2Claims. (01.209-241) The storage and reclaiming of large quantities of bulk material,- .such as crushed ,rock, gravel, ore. and the like has always DIBSQ'ltGd-QuDGIDIGX- ing problem.- The difliculty comes not; storing l material, but inreclaiming it, and various means have been employed in the past for accomplishing the reclamation, such as; steam shovels, grab buckets, scrapers and the likely i Belt conveyors have been found to be very practical and efficient in storing the bulk material and in most instances, the conveyor has been mounted on an overhead support on one side of or betweenelongated storage piles. 7 H

In thisconstruction, trippers are. rranged along the belt conveyor to discharge the material at the desired point. r

In some systems where an-elongated storage pile is formed, a tunnel is providedrunning longitudinally of thepile, housing a belt conveyor, and suitable gates placed at intervals along the tunnel permit'reclamation from thebottom of the pile.

It is customary in this system for the gates to bespaced approximately twentyieetapart, this varying, however, with the character of the materialbeing stored.- 7 g Many other storage systems have been devised and used, but none of them have been entirely satisfactory, principally because the supporting structure for the conveyor and stacker towers is buried-in the live ;load of the pile, and because of the relatively 'large expense of providing a reinforced tunnel beneath the elongated pile.

The object of the present invention is to overcome such disadvantagesas above-mentioned and to provide a system in which a given area of ground will accommodate a maximum storage of material; in which the belt conveyor supporting structure is out from underthe live load of the pile; in which it is possible ,for a single operator to control the reclamation of materialin'graded Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view ofjone arrangement of the storage system, the conical piles being arranged on opposite sides of the main belt conveyor; v

Fig. 2 andFig. 2a are semi-diagrammatic sectional views of the system shown in Fig. 1; the same being taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig, 3is a' transverse, cross sectional view taken on the lines 3-,3 If-Fig. 1; V Fig'. 4f's a viewsimilart'o Fig, 1 except that the storage piles are. placed at right angles to the whariliconveyor becausefofthe available storage'spac x I a I Fig. 5 is a} longitudinal, cross 'sectional view of the-storagearrangement shown in Fig. 4, the same being taken on the line 5-5' of that figure; Fig.6 is transverse, cross sectional view taken Fig.1? is a viewtalgenon th line 'T- ZofFig. 4, showingthe conveyors'leading to andfrom the storage andireclaiming conveyors respectively Thetwoarrangements which have been chosen toillustrate formsoi the present invention are for the purpose of disclosure only for it is realized that'theshapeam location of, the storage space available, as well vas-the.nature-of the terrain, will; determine to alarge extent the precise arrangementof the conveyorsf t) j 1 a.

Inasmuch asthe present "invention relates to a systemlor storing bulk material and is not directed to specific structural details, he attempt will be madeto describepin detailia ny of. the elements which are, well knownv to those skilled in the art. 1 -The essential fact to be kept in mind .is that theparticular arrangement ands'ystem of storing and rec'zlainungv the material makes use of all availableispacacan be operated automatically from a remote point, and is so arranged that shiftin'gthe weights o'f'the piles will not have deleterious effects upon;any;of the' supporting structures. I p

Referring now to Fig, 1, there is shown an arrangement. particularlyadapted for an elongated storage space, situated alongside of a railroad trackand at a convenient distance from a loadin or unloadingfipier,

of navigable Water having a dock or wharf 11 on its shore, equipped with suitable loading andunloading'l means (not shown) ,for bulkmaterial. A belt conveyor 12 runs between the dock 11 and a bi n.13, located over the railroadtracks 14. The

Ibin maybeequipped with a' crusher, scrubber, or other mechanism for treating the, bulk material.

The conveyor ,12 discharges either directlyor indirectlyon an inclined conveyor 15', suitably supported ,by a triissed pillar 16, andleading to a tower, generally designated 17. I

The tower is built upon a concrete silo 18 which rises, with other silos 19,120Iand 21, from a tunnel structure 22 runningmedially of the elongated storage space 23'. I'hetunneI is preferably built The reference character designates a body with its floor at ground level and is provided at one end with an upwardly inclined conduit 24.

At points corresponding to the placement of the silos 18, 19, 20 and 21 are branch tunnels 25, and 26 extending oppositely and at right angles to the central tunnel 22.

The tower 1'7 is equipped with a separating screen 27' upon whi'chthe conveyor 15 is adapted to discharge.- The fines from screen 27 fall by gravity into a hopper 28 from which they discharge onto wing conveyors 29 and 30 carriedby stacker wings 31 and 32, respectively.

Reference is made to Fig. 3 for details or the tower construction, as thetower ,(37) of-this figure is identical with tower 17 except foruthe so that the fines from screen 27 may be selective-- ly discharged onto either or both the wine conveyors. -i

. The tailings from the screenf27 discharge' 'on a. belt conveyor 34 extending between tower 17'and tower 35. Inthis latter toweris another separating screengpreferably likethat in tower 17, which separates the material conveyed to ;it by the belt 34 into fines and tailings, the fines being carried to opposite sides of the tower and the tailings proceedirrg on a conveyor'36 to a third tower 37 It is believed that detailed descriptionfof the separating and distributing'mechan'ism in tower 35 and in tower 37 is unnecessary, asthey are substantialduplicatesof tower' 17,'and they are therefore given corresrionding reference *characters. The tailings from tower 3'7 are-carried to a fourth tower 38 on belt conveyor 39 'where they are discharged directly onto' wing conveyors without passing through a separating screen.

" From the arrangement thus far described, it will be seen thatthe bulkmaterialwhich is to be stored is transported on a belt conveyor to a screen tower "where the smallest pieces are separated from the remainder and piled on opposite sidesof the main conveyor belt in conical piles.

The remainder of the material passes on to a second screen tower where another size is separated out and stacked in conicalpiles alongside of the'second tower, and'so on; While only four groups of-piles have been shown, it is, of course, obvious that any-number of storagepiles can be used, each two of which are madeup of a single screen'size. j

'At the outer extremities of each of the branch tunnels 25 and 26 are openings 40 which fall directly below the apex offthe pile. Automatic feeders 41 of any well known design are placed at these openings and are adapted to discharge on branch conveyor belts 42,'which' carry the reclaimed material to a central or trunk conveyor 43 extending the full length of the tunnel 22' and finally discharging on an inclined conveyor44.

As shown in Fig.2, the conveyor 44'discharges intoa duplexhopper 45 in bin 46, conveniently placed over tracks 47.

The entire system is adapted to be controlled 'from a remote point indicated'at 69 and requires no l'ocalattentionQ For example, if a boat docks at Wharf 11 and it'is desired that the material which it; carries be stored away for future delivery, it isonly necessary to close one or more switches to start the conveyor belts 12, 15, 34, 36, 39 and the separating screens in thetowers. With these in operationythe material is automatically carried to the storage space, and separated into aplurality of grades or sizes.

iwin'g conveyors to form conical When an order is received calling for a certain number of tons of size A material, for example, a remote control puts into operation the feeders 41 beneath the size A pile, starts the branch conveyor belts 42 associated with these feeders as well as the trunk conveyors 43 and 44, so that material of the proper grade is immediately delivered'to bin 46 which loadsjthe railroad cars.

If size B is desired, a remote control starts the necessary belts and feeders for withdrawing material from the bottoms of the piles containing that size. If the order specifies a mixture of two or more sizes, this also can be filled with ease by suitably operating the necessary belts and feeders.

It will be noted that the conical piles are of such size and are sospaced from the central tunnel that the shifting load of the pile is confined to the'area' within and above the dotted lines. In this way, the silos 18, 19, 20 and 21 are not subjected tostrains because of the shifting load in the piles. It will also be noted that the main tunnel 22 is under a deadload'an'd that only a portion of the branch tunnels are subjected to a live load. This feature of construction is" of 'utmost importance in insuring-long life for the installation.

In Figs. '4, 5, 6 and 7, there is showna modified arrangement particularly adapted for a storage space-having'its' greatest dimension at right angles to'thesource of material. In this installation,

the essential features of construction are identical with those of the arrangement previously described, the maindifier'ence being that'the separating "screens are all housed "within a single tower."

In this embodiment of the'invention, a conveyor belt 48=carries thebulk 'material'from the shed l 3'toa separating tower 49 which contains a plurality of separating screens indicated generally at 50 and 51. The'first screen is adapted to separate out two screen sizes, in addition to the tailings. The first screen size from screen 50 is conveyed by belt 52 to tower'53 where it 'is' divided between oppositely extending wing conveyors 54 and 55. The second screen size from screen' 50 is conveyed to tower 56 and there 'divided'between piles on opposite sides of the tower.

The tailings from screen 50 pass to the screen "51 where afirst screen size is separated out and conveyed on belt 57' to tower '53' where wing conveyors receive the material and form conical piles.

The tailings from screen 51 are eonveyed by belt 59 to tower 60, and two more conical piles are formed.

The reclaiming tunnel in'- the modified form is similar in all respects to that in the first form except that 'an enlarged silo 61 rises from the main tunnel intermediate the other silos 62, 63,

'and'64;'65 (not sh ownfl'It is necessary in this installation to employ two trunk reclaiming conveyors 66 and 67 discharging on conveyor 68, the latter conveyor corresponding in function to coniveyor 44 of the first form.

It will be seen that in this modified form of' the invention, conical piles of varying screen sizes are formed in pairs on opposite sides of the reclaiming tunnel in precisely the same manner as they are formed when each tower housed a separating screen.- All of the advantagesof ef- "ficient and quick working of the system by remote materials comprising a plurality of aligned towers, a separator screen in each of the towers but the last, means for delivering bulk material to the first tower screen, belt conveyors connecting the towers in series and adapted to deliver the tailings from one screen to the adjacent tower, wing belt conveyors associated with each screen and adapted to deliver their respective fines to an overhead point alongside the towers to thereby build conical piles, a reclaiming conveyor connecting the bases of the towers, a tunnel extending from the center of each pile toward the reclaiming conveyor, and conveyor belts in the tunnels adapted to withdraw material from the bottom of the piles and to discharge on the reclaiming conveyor.

2. A system for storing and reclaiming bulk material comprising a series of aligned towers, means for delivering bulk material to the towers, wing conveyors projecting laterally from the towers and discharging over fixed points to form conical plies adjacent the towers, a reclaiming conveyor system joining the bases of the towers, and branch belt conveyors associated with each pile adapted to withdraw material from the bottom of the respective piles and discharging on the reclaiming conveyor.

MYRON A. KENDALL. 

